March 2012

March 29, 2012

Vegan and vegetarian Starbucks aficionados are aghast at recent revelations that the company replaced an artificial dye in its Strawberry Frappucino with cochineal extract. The dye, an approved food additive, is made from the crushed shells of cochineal beetles, which vegans and many vegetarians [as well as people who keep Kosher!] eschew as part of their dietary practices.

Unfortunately for vegans[and Kashrus observers], avoiding all animal byproducts — especially bugs– in the American food system is basically impossible. The Food and Drug Administration even keeps a list of how many bugs and bug parts manufacturers are allowed to have in their products — including many that vegans or vegetarians [and Jews] eat. So how much non-vegan/[non-kosher content] might be in your food? We had a look at the standards and, leaving aside how much animal feces and hair is allowed, compiled 10 of the grossest.

1. Frozen or canned asparagusProducers are allowed to leave 6 or more attached asparagus beetle eggs and/or sacs on 10% of their spears and either: an average of 40 thrips per 100 grams; or make sure the remaining insects or insect parts have an average aggregate length of 7mm or longer per each 100 grams. Crunchy!

2. Canned lingonberriesThey taste so good at Ikea — but that little extra protein comes from the 3 larvae per pound allowed.

3. Frozen Brussels sproutsLook closely: producers can have up to 30 aphids or thrips in every 100 grams.

5. Canned cornEach 24 pounds of corn can have up to two corn ear worms or corn borer larvae less than 3 millimeters or longer, as long as the total larvae, shed skin or fragments thereof does not exceeds 12 millimeters.

Pro-Israel organization StandWithUs announces 'BIG' day for March 30, urges shoppers to purchase Israeli-made products in bid to counter global anti-Israel boycott day

For the past few years, storeowners worldwide who chose to sell Israeli made products and their customers have had to face a daily gauntlet of protestors seeking to boycott Israeli goods through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is actively seeking to operate against Israel on a global level.

Now, StandWithUs, a pro-Israeli organization is fighting back. StandWithUs is urging schools, campuses, synagogues, community organizations, and individuals to celebrate Israel by designating March 30 as the day to buy up Israeli goods at local stores - the BIG weekend.

The date was chosen because the anti-Israel boycott campaign has planned a global boycott of Israeli products for the same day (March 30). Protestors will stand outside stores, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products.

"We need to show the boycotters that their efforts remain doomed. Let the boycotters know that when they call for boycotts of even one or two stores or products, they will face a much larger movement to buy Israeli goods," said StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein.

"We are telling people to go to their local stores, request the exact Israeli products being targeted, and buy them out. Let store managers know they should keep Israeli products well stocked on the shelves."

March 28, 2012

Controversy ensued after Beis Rivkah High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., pulled from class every 11th grade student who used Facebook and handed them a written ultimatum: delete their accounts from the social networking site and pay $100 to the school, or be expelled, community website CrownHeights.info reports.

A school official, who wished to remain anonymous, says that the Facebook crackdown was to restore a level of Tznius -- the Jewish Orthodox code of modesty -- which they claim was on the decline because girls were using the site.

Jewish newspaper the Algemeiner spoke to several students about the incident, all of whom requested to remain anonymous, saying the school felt Facebook wasn't compatible with their moral code.

“People on the board said it’s not proper for us to have Facebook because girls might be talking to boys on Facebook or they might be putting up immodest pictures,” an unnamed student told the paper.

“There is nothing new about Beth Rivkah’s Facebook policy, which is over two years old," Teichtel told the paper. "In keeping with the highest quality standards of educating our students, within the context of a pure and sacred Torah (Jewish law) environment."

Babushka's daughters attended and granddaughters attend this school, so Babushka has more authority to comment on this issue than the furious keyboard pounders at HuffPost. For one thing, this is a private school and they are allowed to set a "No Facebook" policy, Parents who do not like this policy are free to send their kids to a different school. Secondly, "Facebook" is not a constitutionally protected right. Schools have the right to ban Facebook or other Internet activities, just like corporations have the right to ban employees from using "Facebook" on company time (unless you're working on corporate "social media" but that's a whole different issue)

"Facebook" with all of its perpheral apps and games can get out of control very quickly. However, my daughter who is a Bais Rivkah graduate thinks the school is trying to micro-manage students' lives by banning technology, recalling that she was once sent home from school for a dress code violation--having argyle squares on her socks, which were supposed to be a solid color!

Doubling down on trivia is not conducive to a true religious education.

March 26, 2012

Jewish and Muslim leaders link arms in a silent march to honour the victims of a shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school, where a rabbi and three children were killed in Toulouse March 25, 2012. Grand Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim (3rd R) is flanked by Hassan Chalghoumi, the imam of the town of Drancy near Paris. Reuters Pictures.

Jewish and Muslim leaders attend a silent march to honour the victims of a shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school, where a rabbi and three children were killed, in Toulouse March 25, 2012. Reuters Pictures.

A white and a black person hold hands as they take part in a march in Paris, on March 25, 2012. This demonstration was called by human rights associations following the recent shooting of seven people by self-proclaimed Islamist Mohamed Merah in Toulouse's area. Abdelkader Merah, the older brother of Mohamed, was presented on March 25, to a Paris judge to face charges. Getty Images.

The mother (C) of French paratrooper Imad Ben Ziaten carries a portrait of her deceased son as she walks next to her husband (L) and French State Secretary to the Defence Ministry Marc Laffineur (R) during their arrival at the airport of Rabat March 24, 2012. The remains of Ziaten, killed March 11 in Toulouse, southwest France, arrived in Rabat late Saturday. Reuters Pictures.

Muslim Couple attends a silent march to honour the victims of a shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school, where a rabbi and three children were killed, in Toulouse March 25, 2012. The march was organised by a Jewish umbrella group together with Muslim leaders. Reuters Pictures.

People from all faiths march on March 25, 2012 in the southwestern city of Toulouse, in the district where three children and one teacher were killed last week by self-proclaimed Islamist Mohamed Merah. Police shot dead Merah as he jumped out of the window of his apartment following a 32-hour siege, after he killed seven people. Getty Images.

March 23, 2012

My heart is broken. I am unable to speak. There are no ways for me to be able to express the great and all-consuming pain resulting from the murder of my dear husband Rabbi Jonathan and our sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, and of Miriam Monsonego, daughter of the dedicated principal of Ozar Hatorah and his wife, Rabbi Yaakov and Mrs. Monsonego.

May no one ever have to endure such pain and suffering.

Because so many of you, my cherished brothers and sisters in France and around the world, are asking what you can do on my behalf, on behalf of my daughter Liora and on behalf of the souls of my dear husband and children, I feel that, difficult though it may be, it is incumbent upon me to answer your entreaties.

My husband’s life was dedicated to teaching Torah. We moved back to the country of his birth to help young people learn about the beauty of Torah. He was truly a good man, loving, giving, and selfless. He was sensitive to all of G-d’s creatures, always searching for ways to reveal the goodness in others.

He and I raised Aryeh and Gavriel to live the ways of Torah. Who would have known how short would be their time on this Earth, how short would be the time I would be with them as their mother?

I don’t know how I and my husband’s parents and sister will find the consolation and strength to carry on, but I know that the ways of G-d are good, and He will reveal the path and give us the strength to continue. I know that their holy souls will remain with us forever, and I know that very soon the time will come when we will be together again with the coming of Moshiach.

I wholeheartedly believe in the words of the verse: “The L-ord has given, and the L-ord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the L-ord.” I thank the Almighty for the privilege, short though it was, of raising my children together with my husband. Now the Almighty wants them back with Him.

To all those who wish to bring consolation to our family and contentment to the souls of the departed: Let’s continue their lives on this Earth.

Parents, please kiss your children. Tell them how much you love them, and how dear it is to your heart that they be living examples of our Torah, imbued with the fear of Heaven and with love of their fellow man.

Please increase your study of Torah, whether on your own or with your family and friends. Help others who may find study difficult to achieve alone.

Please bring more light into the world by kindling the Sabbath candles this and every Friday night. (Please do so a bit earlier than the published times as a way to add holiness to our world.)

The holiday of Passover is approaching. Please invite another person into your homes so that all have a place at a Seder to celebrate the holiday of our freedom.

BAY HARBOR ISLAND, Fla. (WSVN) -- The local plastic surgeon who appeared in a controversial music video is under a new wave of criticism after his offer to Jewish singles. Dr. Michael Salzhauer, the Orthodox Jewish Bay Harbor plastic surgeon who made national headlines for commissioning a rock band to write a song about nose jobs, has put himself front and center with a controversial new offer.

The doctor's new plan involves cosmetic surgery for Orthodox Jewish singles who cannot get married. "I made an offer on my Facebook page that if there were any singles in the Orthodox community that felt they could benefit from cosmetic surgery, I would do it pro bono," said Salzhauer.

Salzhauer said he was inspired by a recent article in a Jewish newspaper that detailed the crisis of getting married in the Jewish community. He believes that cosmetic surgery could lead to more marriages. "The first question that mothers of prospective grooms ask a potential bride is, 'Well, is she pretty?'" he said. Fresh off the music video controversy where the lead singer plays a young man who cannot seem to get a date because of a nose that looks like "Jewcan Sam," comes another splash that some may find offensive. In the Orthodox Jewish community, many couples are set up by match makers. Under Dr. Salzhauer's plan, these match makers would single out Jewish singles who they thought needed cosmetic surgery but cannot afford it. Salzhauer, who is very involved in the Jewish community and was honored Tuesday night from an organization that helps out Jewish children with cancer, says this is his way of giving back. "A lot of good could come out of all this publicity, if it helps people in my community find their prospective matches and form families and have happy lives," he said.

Babushka is opposed to surgery for nose jobs and whatnot, because, when the first child is born and it has Mama's "before" nose, Daddy is going to say "Whose nose is that?" Not conducive to "Shalom Bayis" (domestic tranquility)

Babushka's youngest daughter was born with a nose normally associated with "non-Jews," but which in fact was the same as her maternal grandmother. She admitted that once she was very humiliated by some old ladies, while riding on a train, who cruelly commented that she "looked like a shiksa." She got married to a wonderful man who loves her just the way she is!

March 21, 2012

Toulouse, France - On what would have been the tenth wedding anniversary of Gavriel and Rivky Holzberg, the Chabad shluchim who were murdered in the Mumbai terror attacks just over three years ago, comes the chilling news that Gavriel Sandler, the three year old boy murdered in Toulouse school shooting on Monday had been named in memory slain shaliach Gavriel Holzberg.

According to reports in Arutz Sheva, Rivky Holzberg’s father, R’ Shimon Rosenberg, said that he relived the horrors of Mumbai after hearing of the brutal murders in France Monday morning.

“This is a difficult day for Jews everywhere,” said R’ Rosenberg. “I feel the pain of the families of those who were gunned down, the Jews of France and the entire Jewish people. This act of cold blooded murder took me back to the murder of my children. I spoke to one of the members of the Sandler family yesterday who told me that their Gavriel had been named in memory of my son in law, which makes me feel as if we are now family.”

March 20, 2012

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - The gunman who shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school was a cold, cruel killer who filmed his carnage, France's interior minister said, as the country prepared to hold a silent tribute to the victims on Tuesday.

Claude Gueant told reporters video surveillance tapes at the school in Toulouse showed the gunman was recording his shooting spree with a small video camera attached to his neck.

"This adds another element to the profile of the killer. It is someone who is cruel enough to record it," Gueant said at a primary school in the southwestern city.

"This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel," Gueant added.

The school attack, and the killing of three soldiers last week, has stunned France and prompted President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leading candidates to suspend campaigning for next month's presidential election.

More than 200 police officers have joined the hunt for the gunman, who is the prime suspect in the killing of three paratroopers in two separate shootings last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban, to the north.

Gueant said police were pursuing several leads into the attacks, which shared a number features. In each attack, the gunman arrived on a stolen scooter and used a Colt 45 handgun.

Sarkozy ordered security tightened in Toulouse, with guards posted at religious sites and the terror alert raised to its highest level in Toulouse and the surrounding region.

"We will track down this monster. We will find him, bring him to justice and punish him," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said of the killer on France 2 television.

A child who survived the attack spoke of his feelings of terror as the shots rang out through the school.

"We were getting ready for prayers when the principal stormed in and screamed that there was a shooting. I panicked and fled to the old canteen and heard the shots, but saw nothing," an 11-year old boy who survived the attack told France Info radio.

"I thought he was going to come in any minute and finish us all. Then I waited and waited and then my daddy came to get me," he said.

Police have not named a suspect but are searching the city of around one million for a man they believed could be a trained marksman, as well as the Yamaha scooter he used to flee. The shooter's face was hidden by a motorcycle helmet during the attack.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said on Monday the school killings appeared to be motivated by racism, was due to attend a one minute silent vigil at 1100 a.m. (1000 GMT) in a Paris secondary school. Schools in all of France will observe a minute of silence.

At the entrance to the school, a five-floor brick building in a leafy residential neighborhood, residents and parents left floral tributes and candles in memory of the victims.

The bodies of three of the victims, who had dual French and Israeli nationality, were expected to be sent to Israel but no details were available about the timing.

March 19, 2012

Shooting in Toulouse which claimed the lives of a Rabbi and 3 children.

PARIS — The number of anti-Semitic acts reported in France last year fell, but there's still a hotline staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week to report such incidents in the country.

Jews in France for the most part live in safety and participate freely in French public life, and most anti-Semitic acts target property and not people. But the existence of the hotline speaks to the fact that anti-Semitism often lurks just below the surface.

An attack Monday outside a Jewish school in the southwestern city of Toulouse that killed a rabbi and four children was a stark reminder of how dangerous that hate can become. It was the most deadly attack targeting Jews in France since the early 1980s.

Jewish graves — and Muslim ones — are frequently desecrated; the prime minister recently suggested that kosher slaughter was out of sync with modern times; and just last week, threatening letters were sent to two synagogues in Paris, including one that called Jews "Satan" and warned they would go to Hell.

France is particularly sensitive about its Jewish community, estimated at 500,000 people, because of its World War II past of abetting Nazi occupiers in deporting Jewish citizens. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was Jewish, has worked to improve relations with Israel in recent years.

The toll-free hotline is maintained by the Protection Service for the Jewish Community, a group whose sole mission is to help provide security for synagogues and for large Jewish celebrations.

The Protection Service, which tallies reports of anti-Semitic acts each year, said that while the number in 2011 fell to 389, the aggressiveness of the attacks was rising. In 2010, 466 were reported. Those acts include everything from violence to vandalism.

The service was created in 1980 after a bomb in the saddlebag of a motorbike killed four people and wounded nine at the synagogue on Rue Copernic in central Paris.

France is home to Europe's largest populations of both Muslims and Jews, and many anti-Semitic attacks are linked to conflict between the two communities in the Middle East. The majority happen in the French capital, and a Jewish leader in Toulouse expressed shock that his southwestern city was targeted.

"Toulouse was always integrated. We didn't have any problems of integration or security problems," said Bouaz Gasto, vice president of the Association of Reform Jews of Toulouse. "That's why we always thought that this would never happen here because we didn't have any particular worry."

He said that most of the approximately 15,000 Jews in Toulouse trace their origins back to North Africa, like many in France, and the community is fairly traditional but always well-connected to other communities in the city. Toulouse, for instance, has never had a traditionally Jewish quarter, despite the community's significant size in a city of about 440,000.

"There have been a few incidents, like everywhere. But we never focused on them," Gasto said.

But in recent years, Gasto said religion — and anti-Semitism — has crept more into the public debate, pointing to the current presidential campaign, which was recently seized with a controversy over ritually slaughtered meat.

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — A motorcycle gunman opened fire Monday in front of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two small sons and one other child, the prosecutor's office said.

It was at least the third deadly motorcycle shooting in France in a week, shocking the country and prompting strong emotions and high-level discussions in Israel. French prosecutors were studying possible terrorist links, but the motive for Monday's attack was unclear.

Concerns about a serial killer emerged, as investigators examined whether Monday's shooting was linked to two deadly shooting attacks in the Toulouse region last week that killed three French paratroopers and left another seriously injured. French media reported those paratroopers were of Arab origin.

President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the school, ordering increased security at Jewish and Muslim buildings around Toulouse, while his prime minister ordered officials to "secure" all school and religious buildings in France.

A 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in Monday's attack, just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school, a junior high and high school in a quiet residential neighborhood, Toulouse Prosecutor Michel Valet said. Witnesses said the man worked at the school.

Valet said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old was seriously injured.

"He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults," he said. "The children were chased inside the school."

Sarkozy denounced "the savagery" of Monday's attack on a school, and vowed to find the killer or killers. "We will find him," he said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told The Associated Press that the suspect in Monday's school shootings made his getaway on a dark-colored scooter — just as the assailant or assailants did in the two shootings last week.

The school targeted Monday, behind a high white wall with few external markings, was cordoned off by police, who then escorted other children out as forensics police combed the scene.

One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son wearing a yarmulke walked away from the site, their faces visibly pained. A video camera was visible at the school's entrance.

March 18, 2012

Winemaker Joseph Zakon took his son's class on a journey to make kosher wine with the Carbonic Maceration technique.

By COLlive reporter

Wine brands like Kesser, Joseph Zakon Winery, Farbrengen and Seloh have been for years a regular item on the Shabbos tables of frum Jews worldwide.

What is less know is that their creator, Joseph Zakon of Crown Heights, was the youngest person to start a bonded winery on the West End of Long Island back in 1981.

This past months, at the urging of Rabbi Levi Feldman, his son's teacher at the Oholei Torah boys school, Zakon agrees to teach the youngsters the tricks of the trade.

Although his marrying off a daughter this week, Zakon took the time to purchase California Special brand wine grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese from a local market.

He was showing them a technique called Carbonic Maceration (whole grape berry fermentation) and gave each student a plastic 96 ounce container filled with grapes (stems were removed).

With loosely tightening the cap on the container, they allowed the carbon dioxide to escape during the natural process of fermentation. Fermentation was taking place within the whole berries and some juice that escaped from the grapes on the bottom of the containers pressed or bruised.

The students then had the opportunity to visit the Herzog winery, the largest kosher winery in the world, where they could see their work being processed efficiently on a much larger scale.

After approximately 30 days, the students emptied the grapes and fermenting juices from their plastic bottles into 5-gallon pails.

Zakon then came to their classroom with a modified home juicer (which does not allow the juicer to grind the seeds and skin of the grapes and prevents bitter flavors from the skins and seeds into the wine).

He explained that this juicer can be used for smaller quantities and is less back breaking then the traditional basket press. However the draw back was that he allowed the grape skins not to be pressed completely dry.

Approximately 30-40 days after the wine settled in the class room, Zakon showed the young bochurim the process of racking the wines off the lees and sediment.

The wine they were racking from the top of the container was clean, but had not reached the brilliants one expects from bottled wine.

Joseph explained that for that to happen most efficiently, one can use a fining agent that will blend with the wine. Then as the wine settles this fining agent causes the more stubborn sediments to cling to the fining agent and settle to the bottom of the container.

For this wine, he used a raw egg white of a half egg per 5-gallons.

The students were again fortunate to visit the bottling winery where they experienced up close the speed and efficiency used to bottle wine and grape juice, for the many Jewish communities.

After many months of patiently waiting, the day finally arrived, and the students bottled their wine with the help of a water filter, a single bottle filler connected with plastic tubing, a single bottle corker, an electric hot water kettle, bottles, corks, heat shrink seals.

And perhaps, most importantly, a self-stick label that the children designed using a home computer. They called it "Yain Malchus."

Zakon makes sure to note that although his was a thrilling experience for the students, they did not get to sip the wine, instead bringing it home to their parents to taste.

"They did not get to sip the wine" Oh I am so relieved. According to Vosizneias,

The project began in September with each boy receiving an empty ninety six ounce plastic bottle and three pounds of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese grapes and ended in March with each student bottling, corking, labeling and sealing their own bottle of wine. The result? A dry, fruity red Kosher L’Pesach wine, with a sixteen percent alcohol content that, according to Zakon, has a nice flavor now but will improve with age as it develops.

16% alcohol! That's really strong for wine. At the seders at our house, we use 5.5% wine, otherwise we wouldn't make it to the end of the seder!

Palestinian women take a break to recover from tear gas that was fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes between inhabitants of the village of Nabi Saleh, in the occupied West Bank and Israeli soldiers on March 9, 2012, after the villagers marched in protest against the annexation of land in favor of the construction of the Israeli settlement of Hallamish. Getty Images.

By Avi Issacharoff

Female activists accuse leftist organizations of belittling cases of harassment by Palestinians for the sake of the struggle against the occupation; Palestinian activist: It is unacceptable that Israeli or foreign women that come to protest in solidarity with us be harassed.

"Hi everyone, I'm writing this here because I'm not really sure when the next meeting will be. At the demonstration today (February 10, 2012) in Kfar a-Dik, I noticed looks and finger pointing from the shabab (nickname for young Palestinians) that made me feel some discomfort. They talked amongst themselves, and not with me, but the word that came up quite a lot was ‘slut,’ with glances directed toward me. When I met A. and H. (two men), I told them about this, and H. stayed by my side. Despite this, there was some ‘accidental’ touching, and some incidents in which people called me a ‘slut.’ In the end of the day, it was a very unpleasant experience.”

This letter, written by an Israeli leftist activist, is only one of the causes for the stormy debate that has been taking place online among leftist and human rights activists in Israel.

The activist sent the letter to her friends at Anarchists Against the Wall, in which she wrote of the incidents of sexual harassment she had experienced in Kfar a-Dik, a West Bank village where the organization holds protests in support of the Palestinians from time to time.

This correspondence, along with other testimonies obtained by Haaretz, tells of a wider phenomenon of sexual harassment and assault of Israeli and foreign protesters in the West Bank. In the past two years, at least six incidents were recorded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: two in Sheikh Jarrah, four more in the Mount Hebron area, in Masra, in Kfar a-Dik, and an alleged case of attempted rape in Umm Salmona, near Bethlehem, that was revealed in Haaretz.

Recently, a special forum was started by a group of women from leftist groups for the purpose of dealing and monitoring such incidents. “The objective is to learn the subject,” says one of the group’s members. “We want to develop tools and guidelines for creating an environment with fewer cases of harassment.”

Well I dunno. I don't see anything "anti-Semitic" (anti-Jewish) about this cartoon because it is impossible to tell who the "rats" are supposed to represent. Who would recognize the "cheese pieces" as representing the "Palestinian Territories"? The Palestinians claim the entire area of Israel belongs to them, and a Google image of "Palestinian territories" shows a wide variety of geographical areas.

For all we know the "rats" could represent Hamas, for every terrorist attack they commit, Israel takes away a swatch of land that the Palestinians might have otherwise been granted.

So who is this whiny little shmuck who came out of freaking nowhere to reveal (oh! the horror!) that Rush word-rape victim Sandra Fluke has a Jewish boyfriend! Not only that, but a Rich Jewish Boyfriend whose parents are (gasp!) active in Jewish and liberal activities! He's like a freaking first cousin of Karl Marx fergawdssake!

So why are we giving this doofus the time of day? Because after his Joo Freakout over Ms. Fluke's boyfriend, he has doubled down on Teh Stupid and started Tweeting Scheiße about "Jewish racial evolution" or whatever the hell it's called, citing well-known racist Kevin MacDonald. He seems to totally not comprehend that "Professor" MacDonald has been completely discredited as a serious scholar, and his work is masturbatory material for assorted white racist gangs.

The ADL and SPLC have published critiques of MacDonald’s work, however his fans (white racists) dismiss these because they’re from “Jews” and “Socialists.” The only “peer reviewed” positive critiques of MacDonald come, as you would guess, from other white racists. Here is a peer-review critique of MacDonald's research techniques which appeared in H-Antisemitism in 2001.

This Taki wannabee popped up out of freaking nowhere and none of the right-wing pundits, who all claim to be "friends of Jews" and "pro-Israel" have denounced him yet.

March 14, 2012

A Haredi-owned Jerusalem restaurant will be restricting the working hours of waitresses in order to receive the strict mehadrin kashrut certificate.

The veteran eatery, Heimische Essen, in Rehavia, will cease employing waitresses on Thursday nights, a favorite time for yeshiva boys to patronize the eatery.

Waitresses at the restaurant, which serves Eastern European specialties to a variety of people, are modestly dressed, although some of them are not Orthodox.

According to the owner, Haim Safrin, zealots, "who are jealous of the place's success," pressured the kashrut supervisors of the strict Agudat Israel high religious court, known as the Badatz, to stop waitresses from working on Thursday nights.

The Badatz is a private body which grants kashrut certificates and supervision over and above that provided by the Chief Rabbinate. The demand for waitress-free Thursday nights is unusual, but it is not unusual for bodies granting kashrut certificates, including the state-run Chief Rabbinate, to withdraw or threaten to withdraw a certificate for reasons that have nothing directly to do with food, such as the religious or spiritual affiliation of the owners or event halls that hold weddings for gay couples.

Be Free Israel, a group that advocates religious freedom and pluralism, called for a boycott of the restaurant, and says it plans to demonstrate in front of it tomorrow night.

Safrin, who says he has many non-religious and non-Jewish patrons, says the Badatz's instruction is not the end of the matter and he wants to find a compromise. "At most, we can move shifts," he said.

SALT LAKE CITY — Mormon leaders have put up a virtual firewall in their massive genealogical database to block out anyone who attempts to access the names of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims the church has agreed not to posthumously baptize.

The move comes amid criticism that the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn't done enough to live up to commitments to stop its members worldwide from performing the baptism ritual on Holocaust victims and other notable Jews.

The new system will immediately block church members' access should they try to seek out names of Holocaust victims or other notable figures that have been flagged as not suitable for proxy baptisms. The church said the move is aimed at ending the practice.

But critics say it merely serves to block anyone from monitoring whether the posthumous baptisms continue.

"By not allowing public access to the records, it creates the illusion they have something to hide," said Jewish genealogist Gary Mokotoff, who was involved in negotiations with the church over ending the practice for the past two decades.

Mormons believe the baptism ritual allows deceased people a way to the afterlife — if they choose to accept it.

But the practice offends members of many other religions, especially Jews, who have expressed outrage at attempts to alter the religion of Holocaust victims because they were killed based on their beliefs.

In the 1990s, after negotiations with Jewish leaders, the church agreed to end to the practice, but revelations by an ex-Mormon researcher have shown it continues.

In recent weeks, researcher Helen Radkey, using confidential Mormon sources who had access to the LDS database, revealed that Mormon temples had posthumously baptized the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal, Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager forced into hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust and killed in a concentration camp, and Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a Jewish writer who was murdered while on assignment in Pakistan.

March 05, 2012

A former infantry commander who fought in three Middle East wars and now the dean of Israeli defense correspondents, Daniel recently visited military headquarters in Tel Aviv. There, a urinal that uses a motion detector to clean itself was signposted: "Forbidden on the Sabbath." Troops, he realized, were being ordered to defer to Orthodox Jewish curbs on the use of electricity between Friday night and Saturday night.

For Daniel, and for millions of other Israeli citizens, the sign is symbolic of creeping change in an institution long cherished as a bastion of national unity. An increasing number of conscripts are Orthodox Jews - mirroring the growth of the minority in Israeli society at large. Some religious troops view military service through the prism of their own piety - either as the realization of a messianic vision that sees Jews conquering biblical lands or as an institution that should be subordinated to rabbinical writ.

For secular Israelis, already worried about the role of religion in the Jewish state, that threatens not just the military but the country itself.

"In my time, the skullcap-wearers came to the military and served alongside me. They lived their lives as they pleased, we respected them, and they also respected our lifestyle," said Daniel, who is 64 and secular. "Today's generation, to a degree, joins up with the object of imposing its lifestyle on others - to dictate how to behave. It's a crawling annexation."

Look, people, make up your minds. You can't complain that "Haredim don't serve in the IDF" and then complain that "Too many Haredim are in the IDF." Now that the Tal Law is history, there are going to be many, many more Haredim in the IDF and this is not a bad thing, but they will have to be accommodated.